The proposed Colombo South Harbour will be located west of the present south west Breakwater in an area of approximately 600 hectares. The proposed harbour will have 4 terminals of over 1,200m in length each to accommodate 3 berths alongside depths of 18m and provision to deepen to 23m to accommodate deeper draft vessels of the future. The channel width of the harbour is to be 560 m and depth of 20m, with harbour basin depth of 18m and a 600m turning circle.

Colombo Port Expansion Project (CPEP) is the largest project undertaken by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) with a US$1200 million investment. It is a government build and own harbour facility and will have a private-public partnership in the provision of terminal services. In addition, the SLPA will be the overall landlord, with an equity stake in each terminal.

Construction work on the breakwaters and the first terminal is scheduled to be completed within 39 months and commissioned in 2010. Tender documents will be issued from December 26 and SLPA expects to award the construction tender by July 2007.

CPEP consists of two breakwaters, 5Km and 1Km in length and four container terminals of four berths each. The new port basin will have a dredged depth of 18m and an access channel with 20m depth. The South terminal to be launched first will be 1200m in length, sufficient for 3x400m berths.

There are two more similar terminals under phase 1 of the project and the construction work will start subsequently with the increasing demand. The capacity of a terminal will be 2.4 million TEUs. Phase 2 of the project includes an extension of the breakwater and construction of one more terminal.

The new port infrastructure and the first three terminals would cost around US$ 1,200 million. The ADB will provide a concessional loan facility for the project.

The new port will have the latest generation yard planning and container handling equipment and techniques. After the completion of the CPEP the capacity of the Colombo port will increase to 12 million TEUs, a threefold increase from the present capacity of four million TEUs.